A lot of people have wondered how the right is going to justify letting Rush Limbaugh off the hook assuming (and this is by no means proven) he is guilty of the drug charges currently being leveled at him.
The answer is that we as a society have done it a thousand times before, and one more won't make too much difference. White middle class, white upper class drug crimes are seen as different as black or hispanic lower class drug crimes.
Start with one fundamental; whatever anybody says, you don't want your kids, your brothers, and your sisters, your neighbors and your friends going to jail. It's a natural fact of life. However much a a person might talk about getting tough on crime, when it comes to the crimes loved ones commit all that talk goes out the window. It's easy to see drug addiction as a sickness in one we love; it's harder to see it that way with someone we're never going to meet.
Add a second fundamental; Upper class whites and middle class whites have more power in this society thant lower class blacks. If all classes wielded equal power in America than we would see our drug problem as a medical not a law enforcement problem. There's also a vague sense of logic too it, although it's the ugly sort of logic that is rarely spoken outloud. White middle class kids have a support system to help them through the rough patchs; black kids have no such support system. But to admit that outloud would be to put to the lie a lot of arguments about Affirmative Action. So it remains largely an unspoken logic.
At any rate, we'll see how this tumbles out for Rush; but i'm not too worried. The old rationalizations are going to work for him as well as for anybody else.
Bryant
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